00;00;00;06 - 00;00;15;13
Speaker 1
Welcome to the No Gray Areas podcast. You're tuning into a segment called Chat with Pat. In these sessions, Pat will answer questions submitted by you while elaborating on previous conversations with our podcast guests. Let's dive in.
00;00;16;02 - 00;00;44;18
Speaker 2
Whatever is beneath your heart, mind and soul will eventually come out one way or another. I want to talk about a metaphor of a house and this egg as we unpack how courage, humility, patience and grace are necessary for you and me to deal with those hidden places in our lives. Recently, we had Melody Radar Day on our No Gray Areas podcast, and amongst the many things we talked about, she's poignant.
00;00;44;18 - 00;01;06;25
Speaker 2
She pointed out these these signposts or these areas that we can watch for in our own life or the lives of our friends and family. The sign posts that will indicate that maybe we need some help to uncover the trauma and the hurts in our life. So let me start with this metaphor of a home. Let's say you invited someone over to your house and they're just an acquaintance.
00;01;06;25 - 00;01;28;17
Speaker 2
You don't know them. Well, they're. They're coming over for dinner. Well, when you invited them in, they would come into the entryway and you would let them into your living area or your living room or your dining room in your kitchen. But that's probably all that they'll see of your house. Now, if it was a closer person, an intimate friend or a family member, that had never seen your house, you might invite them further into your home and allow them to see the.
00;01;28;24 - 00;01;53;21
Speaker 2
The bedrooms, the master bedroom, the master bath. But even with them, I would suggest that there are some areas that they won't see. There are some closets where you've got a bunch of junk and crap sitting that you're not going to let anybody else really look into in the same way. I would say that in your life, in my life, there's areas that we are we're transparent with our acquaintances and we let them see.
00;01;53;21 - 00;02;15;17
Speaker 2
But there's a lot of areas in our life that no one sees except our closest friends and family. But I would suggest that there's also a closet in your life and maybe my life where no one else is gone. No one else has seen something that was said to you or done to you or something that you said and did, and no one knows about it.
00;02;15;21 - 00;02;35;04
Speaker 2
And you've kept that closet closed and you've come up with coping mechanisms and internal vows that you took as a little boy or a little girl to try to avoid going into that closet. Whatever it cost you'll do to keep away from that closet because the hurts and the pain, some trauma. And so maybe it's a little boy or a little girl.
00;02;35;04 - 00;02;53;28
Speaker 2
You took an internal vow and you said, I'll never let someone treat me like this again. I'll never feel like this again. I'll prove you wrong. And all of those vows were taken. And now you've got these things in your life that no one knows. So how do we dig those? How do we open up that? How do we start to deal with those?
00;02;55;02 - 00;03;14;06
Speaker 2
Well, I can certainly tell you that it's going to take these four things. If you can open that door to that closet. It's going to take courage. See, courage is often misunderstood. Courage is often seen as or the courageous person is often seen as is that one that has no fear, has no anxiety. That's not the courageous person.
00;03;14;12 - 00;03;39;22
Speaker 2
The courageous person is not the one who has no fear or anxiety. The courageous person is one who faces those fears and anxieties. It's going to take courage. It's going to take humility. You see, humility is recognizing that I'm not okay. You're not okay, but that's okay. You see, humility says I'm not okay. I have my struggles, I have my problems, I have my closets with stuff in it.
00;03;40;18 - 00;04;09;04
Speaker 2
I have my addictions that I struggle with. Humility is saying you have your problems and anxiety and and addictions that you're struggling with. But humility, saying that that's okay, we're human. I've heard it said before, beware of the person who walks without a limp. It's interesting. The older I get, the quicker I can tell in conversations with people, those that are pretending like they have it all together, that are pretending that they're not flawed individuals.
00;04;09;04 - 00;04;40;10
Speaker 2
Because the fact is we're all flawed. We all have our garbage, we all have our addictions that we struggle with. So humility is simply saying, I'm not okay. You're not okay. But that's okay. It's going to take courage. It's going to take humility. It's going to take patience. Because you know what? When you start going into those dark places in your life, when you start opening up those closets and allowing the therapist, a friend, a pastor God, to start unpacking those hurts, the shame that you feel from those things that you said or did or that was said or did to you, you're not going to recover and heal from that overnight.
00;04;40;10 - 00;05;01;17
Speaker 2
It's going to take weeks, probably months, maybe years, and perhaps the rest of your life. It's going to take courage. It's going to take humility. It's going to take patience, and it's going to take grace. Grace for yourself. You just being able to say, hey, I was a little boy or a little girl when I made that internal vow.
00;05;01;21 - 00;05;17;27
Speaker 2
And it worked for a lot of years, but it's not working anymore. I had to I had to have that at that point in my life. And now I got to forgive myself. I had some coping mechanisms in my life that I needed and they were necessary, and maybe they turned into something unhealthy. But I have to forgive myself for those as well.
00;05;18;04 - 00;05;36;14
Speaker 2
It's going to take Grace. So let me go to this metaphor of this egg. You see, if I set this egg down and we began to stack things on top of that, we might call those things the pressure of life. It could handle some of it, right? I could. I could put some some paper on it and some cardboard on it.
00;05;36;14 - 00;05;55;13
Speaker 2
Maybe a cardboard box, like a balance on it. Right. And I could start putting a little bit of pebbles in there. But once I started getting some larger things in, some of that accumulate it over time, eventually this would burst. Right. And so you can imagine right now I'm squeezing it. You can't see this, but I'm squeezing this in my hand and nothing's happening.
00;05;55;13 - 00;06;29;05
Speaker 2
You can handle the pressure is it can handle the pressure. But eventually, over time, more and more and more is stacked on. Remember what I said at the beginning? Eventually those things hidden in your heart, mind, soul. Eventually those will break and that's what you're left with. But let me leave you with this amazing thought of hope. God specialty is putting this back together again.
00;06;29;29 - 00;06;53;25
Speaker 1
Thank you for tuning in to this session of Chat with Pat. Want to submit your questions? Connect with us on our social media platforms. Links are listed in the show notes. Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more inspiring and motivating content. Thanks for listening.
